Assessing the Recovery Act

Vice President Joe Biden penned a column for this morning's USA Today. Here's an excerpt:

A year ago today, President Obama signed the Recovery Act into law. Time and again I am asked, "How can you say that the Recovery Act has worked when the unemployment rate is so much higher today than it was when the act was signed?" It's a fair question — and one worth answering on this anniversary day.

First, we think the Recovery Act is working because of the progress we've made in slowing job loss. In the three months before the act took effect, America lost 750,000 jobs a month. In the last three months, we've lost about 35,000 jobs a month. That's progress — not good enough, not where we need to be, but progress. And most economists agree that that progress is thanks in a very large part to the Recovery Act.

Independent economists believe that, thanks to the Recovery Act, about 2 million people are on the job today who would not have work otherwise. Is that good enough in an economy that has lost more than 8 million jobs? Of course not. But it is a lot better than the alternative.